Mio fratello ha lavorato da ingegnere per dieci anni.
My brother worked as an engineer for ten years.
Breakdown of Mio fratello ha lavorato da ingegnere per dieci anni.
il fratello
the brother
l'anno
the year
mio
my
dieci
ten
lavorare
to work
per
for / in order to / because of
da
as a (child/teenager), when one was
l'ingegnere
engineer
Questions & Answers about Mio fratello ha lavorato da ingegnere per dieci anni.
Why does the sentence use da ingegnere instead of come un ingegnere to mean "as an engineer"?
When talking about acting in a certain role or profession, Italian uses the preposition da. While English says "as an engineer", Italian translates this idea using da followed directly by the profession. Using come here would sound more like a comparison, meaning "like an engineer", rather than actually being one.
Why is there no article after da? Shouldn't it be da un ingegnere?
Why is the past tense ha lavorato (passato prossimo) used here instead of lavorava (imperfetto) if he worked there for ten whole years?
Even though ten years is a long time, the action has a clear, stated duration (per dieci anni) and is considered a completed event. The passato prossimo is used for finished actions with a defined time frame, while the imperfetto would be used for ongoing background descriptions or habits where the start and end aren't the focus.
Just to refresh, why is it Mio fratello and not Il mio fratello?
In Italian, you do not use the definite article (il, la, etc.) with singular family members when they are paired with a possessive adjective. So it is always mio fratello. If the family member noun were plural or modified, like i miei fratelli (my brothers) or il mio fratello minore (my younger brother), you would need the article.
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